I love connecting parents with great resources, and recently I had the privilege of getting to know Beth Meverden who has a similar heart for encouraging parents on their journey to raise their kids to know and follow the Lord!  You are going to love hearing from her and learning from her wisdom, experiences, and great resources!

Beth, please tell us a little about yourself.

Hi! I’m Beth Meverden. I get to be married to the most amazing man and am mama to 3 wonderful kids (3 you can see). I’m a writer, blogger, and speaker, empowering parents to train their children to know, love, and share Jesus. I’ve been doing some form of Student and Children’s Ministry for close to 25 years. 

I’d love for you to connect with me and do a treasure hunt for all my parenting resources at BethMeverden.com. 

Tell us about your website.

My website is all about empowering mamas to connect to parenting resources they’d get while sitting with me drinking a cup of tea. 

The home page has a Gospel presentation section, because, through the years, I’ve realized that many parents don’t know how to present the Gospel to their children. The day after I posted it, a friend texted and told me she walked her daughter through it, and her daughter decided to follow Jesus! Please go check it out and pass it on!

Many parents don’t spiritually train their children because they don’t know where to find the resources. The Resource page is a list of links to free parenting resources I’ve created.

There’s a direct link to my devotional blog for parents and a direct link to my devotional blog for mamas who have lost children in miscarriage, as well.

What are some of your favorite resources for discipleship that you share with moms?  

When mamas sign up to receive my weekly parenting devotionals in their email (through my website), they get a “Discipleship Map.”  It helps parents assess where their children are spiritually and what the next step is in discipling each of their children in following Jesus.

I also love the Alphabet Theme Weeks resource for parents of preschool age children. It’s a free resource that gives parents Inside Ideas, Outside Ideas, and Adventure Ideas for each letter of the alphabet while they train their children in biblical truths. It’s so fun how Taylor and I had the same heart for our children in teaching them the alphabet! 

I was excited to learn about your “Training Your Children to Know, Love, and Share Jesus” Curriculum used to train kids to be missionaries and ambassadors. Tell us about your curriculum and what prompted you to write it for your kids. 

I’ve been in youth ministry for over 20 years. What I’ve seen is parents abdicating their role as their children’s primary evangelists and disciple-makers. The spiritual training is then left to Sunday School Teachers and Youth Pastors to spiritually train others’ children and teens. 

Some of my students first heard about integrating their faith in Jesus into all aspects of their lives with me when they were 17 years old, even having attended church their entire lives. I wanted that to be different with my children. I realized I needed to intentionally train them before they got into their mission field of school.

When my eldest was three, I started looking for a curriculum to use to train her to be a missionary in the public school she’d be attending. I couldn’t find anything like it, so I wrote it for her. I designed it to be a 20 minutes/week time together talking about becoming a missionary, ambassador, student, and friend who represents Jesus. There are fun games and activities that helped her understand the concepts. It worked so well that I took my other children, some friends’ children, and a Christian preschool class through the curriculum. They were all given a different perspective on why they go to school. Yes, they go to learn, but also to be missionaries and ambassadors for Jesus. 

All of my children have shared their faith with friends at school and have led (or are learning to lead) their own Bible studies. Much of the motivation to lead and reach others spiritually came from the training they received at 4-years-old!

What age group and type of family would be best suited for this curriculum?

This curriculum is specifically for moms (or dads) of children to use the year before they begin kindergarten. The curriculum is in the process of being edited from a public-school focus to one that incorporates Christian school and Homeschool parenting, as well.

How can moms learn more about this amazing resource?

I am looking for a focus group to go through the curriculum for the next school year (2022-23), so if you are interested, please contact me through my website! I’d love for any families who are interested in this study to get in on the fun and train their children to be missionaries!

You clearly have a passion to help parents prepare their children to be missionaries in their schools.  What are some ways that parents can help their children to have this mindset?

First, parents must realize God has planted each of us in a place for us to bear fruit in His Name as His missionaries and ambassadors. There is no age limit on that calling. If our children have a relationship with Jesus, they’re included in the commission to tell others about Him!

One of my favorite things to do is to get a list of their classmates names and write each name on a 3×5 card. Each day on the way to school, I pray with my children for a different child. I encourage them to find a way to serve that child that day. The goal on the way home from school is to check in with them about how they were able to serve that child.

When children realize God put them in their class to represent Him, their approach to doing their best in their schoolwork and listening to and obeying the teacher usually improves because they see an impact beyond themselves.

How can parents help train their children to stand strong in their faith and live out their faith amidst peer pressure and negative influences in the schools?

The most important thing our children can do is love others and be kind in school. It doesn’t do anyone any good if our children are always talking about Jesus and quoting Bible verses but being unkind or cruel to other students whose families don’t believe or believe differently than we do. 

When people notice our children are different, intentionally kind, respectful, and do their best in their work, conversations are sparked. People ask these above-average students why they are the way they are and make wise decisions. Then the children have the opportunity to point others to Jesus. 

Proverbs 13:20 gives us good training for our children, as well. “Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.”

Most children don’t want to be friends with people who will get them in trouble, so Proverbs 13:20 is a good warning. Encouraging our children to make wise choices about who they spend time with is key. 

We need to love and be kind to everyone, influencing them for Jesus. However, we must be selective about who we allow to influence us. Helping our children come up with some standards they’d like to see in their friends (loves Jesus, respects authorities, does schoolwork diligently, kind to classmates, etc.). Then we can encourage our children to become that kind of friend as they actively look for those kinds of friends or serve others as an influencer.

What is the next project/resource that you are working on? 

Adapting Training Your Children to Know, Love, and Share Jesus curriculum is my current big project! I also continue to post weekly parenting devotionals via my website and blog. 

I’m awaiting a release date for a book I co-authored with Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, R.N., B.S.N from the National Center for Biblical Parenting. The book is about how to deal with anger, sadness, and anxiety in you and your kids. It’s a fabulous resource for learning how to manage out of control emotions. I’ll let you know when the release date is finalized!

Thank you for the honor of teaming up with you, Taylor! I’m praying for amazing fruit to continue to come from your heart for Jesus!

Thank YOU, Beth, for sharing these great resources with us!  I loved hearing your practical tips to help our children have a heart to be an ambassador for Christ at school and seeing the fruit of that training with your own children!  I know many families will be so blessed by this curriculum, and I can’t wait to see how God continues to use these great resources you have to further His kingdom with the next generation!  Praying for God’s leading as you continue to follow Him in all that you do!

Training Your Child, Beth Meverden